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Project Rebuild Fact Sheet and Frequently Asked Questions

On September 8, President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress and proposed the American Jobs Act, containing a variety of incentives and programs aimed at getting more Americans back to work.

One of the components of the bill is Project Rebuild, described as the “next generation” of the successful Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP). The bill proposes a $15 billion budget, two-thirds of which would be allocated directly to participating jurisdictions (like NSP 1 and 3), and the other third to be allocated through a competitive process like NSP2.

As proposed, Project Rebuild would leverage the capacity built by grantees and subgrantees in NSP by more than doubling the total allocations of NSP 1, 2 and 3 combined. Download Project Rebuild Fact Sheet and FAQ at left. To learn more about NSP 1, 2 and 3, click here.

According to the White House, Project Rebuild is intended to connect Americans looking for work in distressed communities with the work needed to repair and repurpose residential and commercial properties. Like NSP, Project Rebuild is primarily aimed at acquiring, rehabilitating and re-occupying foreclosed residential property, but there are several modifications:

Many regions with concentrated home foreclosures also have concentrations of vacant commercial structures that weigh on property values and make it less likely that new businesses will come into the community and invest new capital. Project Rebuild will tackle this problem directly by allowing grantees to rebuild and repurpose distressed commercial real estate.

Up to 10 percent of formula grants may be used for establishing and operating a jobs program to maintain eligible neighborhood properties.

Project Rebuild will enable grantees to use funds to establish property maintenance programs to create jobs and mitigate “visible scars” left by vacant/abandoned properties.

Each state will receive a minimum of $20 million of the $10 billion in formula funds.

Beyond this baseline, funds will be targeted to areas with home foreclosures, homes in default or delinquency, and other factors determined by HUD, such as unemployment, commercial foreclosures, and other economic conditions.

Project Rebuild also seeks to scale up successful land bank models, providing infusions of capital to leverage to raise private sector investment, and to empower and expand collaborations with for-profit developers where appropriate.

Project Rebuild will support an estimated 191,000 jobs and treat at least 150,000 properties across all 50 states.

HUD will allocate formula funds within 30 days of Congressional enactment of Project Rebuild, complete the competition, and obligate all funds within 150 days of enactment. Grantees will have three years to spend 100 percent of funding. HUD will establish further benchmarks for expenditures at one year and two years.

Formula funding will go directly to states and entitlement communities across the country. Competitive funds will be available to states, local governments, for-profit entities, non-profit entities and consortia of these entities.

Strict standards of oversight will ensure good stewardship of these funds. HUD will strengthen existing accountability procedures by requiring that grantees have an internal auditor to continually monitor grantee performance to prevent fraud or abuse. Grantees will be required to provide quarterly progress reports and HUD will recapture funds from underperforming or mismanaged grantees to reallocate those funds to areas with greatest need.